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I went down a day early to tune and voice the new YP 275 which was being shown for the first time in the U.S. This piano is not quite the production piano but is more like a second prototype. The production pianos will follow sometime later this year.

The company intends to show the also newly redesigned 208 and 228 grands at the Frankfurt show later this spring.

The vertical pianos we have been working on will show up sometime later.

That is very good news for Young Chang. I hope that you were able to persuade them to accept at least some of your belief in pianoforte.

Are you at liberty to say whether they'll incorporate your long backscales and aggressive bass cutoffs in the shorter grands? (I'm thinking of an exchange - between you and Ron O., I think - on the PTG archives re the appropriateness of cutoffs on pianos longer than seven feet.)

Not sure why I thought that yours was a 208. Still a laser cut steel plate?

Originally posted by FogVilleLad: That is very good news for Young Chang. I hope that you were able to persuade them to accept at least some of your belief in pianoforte.

Are you at liberty to say whether they'll incorporate your long backscales and aggressive bass cutoffs in the shorter grands? (I'm thinking of an exchange - between you and Ron O., I think - on the PTG archives re the appropriateness of cutoffs on pianos longer than seven feet.) [/b]

Now that Young Chang has made its introduction, yes, I am at liberty to discuss at least some of the changes that are being made.

Yes, the backscales in all of the models that I have worked on have been lengthened. I don’t know what I will do with the smaller pianos (if I am asked to do anything at all) but I can tell you that the three larger models—the 275, the 228 and the 208—all have “aggressive” soundboard cutoff bars. They also have crowned ribs and the soundboards have a revised thicknessing specification; they are no longer “diaphragmatically” tapered. The rims have a couple of extra braces and nosebolt in the upper tenor and treble sections. These vary by model but they all get something.

The string scales are new along with new bridges and corrected hammer strikelines. This latter—along with removing the tuned duplex “feature” and revising the hitchpin locations—required extensive plate pattern changes. The capo tastro V-bar has been replaced with half-agraffes. As well, the aesthetic styling of the plates has changed to give them a bit more commonality throughout the product line.

The 275 action geometry has been revised slightly to give it a slightly “crisper” feel.

The Weber and the Young Chang versions of each model are no longer the same. The Young Chang versions have moderately higher-tensioned scales and use Abel “Natural-felt” hammers with a harder press. The Weber versions have a lower-tensioned scale with Abel “Natural-felt” hammers with a softer press. I am trying to define a new corporate “voice” for the company and for the two product lines. Both will be toned down some from the past. Yes, I’m working on improving performance at pianissimo levels—particularly so with the Weber line.

The piano (a YP 275) shown at NAMM is still a pre-production prototype. There are still a few relatively minor changes that need to be made to the plate. As part of the work I’ve been doing with the company a number of changes to the production process are also being made, several of which were not evident in the piano on display (at least not to me).

One goal of these changes is to improved product consistency. The company is working very hard to improved product consistency as well as overall product “quality,” however you might define the word.

A final note: each of these three pianos had a lineage that could be traced directly to a piano once built by some other company of the past. This is no longer the case. Pretty much all traces of that ancestry have been left behind; they no longer look, feel or sound like their predecessors.

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Not sure why I thought that yours was a 208. Still a laser cut steel plate? [/b]

Del,[/b] this is all very good news for Young Chang, for their dealers and prospective dealers, and for consumers.

Corporate culture is established at the top. Saw a statement by the CEO, B. J. Park, to the effect that YC must change everything and do suspect that he was the guy who decided to put the world's foremost authority on piano design on the case. That Park himself has music in his background - church choir singer - is a plus. Long term success requires commitment and passion.

Larry Fine said in his supplement that Young Chang is in a group whose QC is variable. IMO the best advice they could receive is, "Buy CNC machines and slow down."

Did you have to sell YC on product differentiation? No matter how it was done, IMO it's a good thing for consumers. Never did really like the Petrof/Weinbach approach and much prefer Steinway's Family of Pianos concept - three different tonal palettes at three different price points. (Sorry that Ronsen will not be suppying the hammers.)

Extra bracing and elimination of the tuned duplex - the former is easy to understand, but how in the world did you persuade YC to let go of that front duplex? Someone there must really respect you.

Many decry the loss of interest in acoustics, but IMO do not take sufficient note of the interest in digitals. Lots of creativity among the young is being expressed in the digital realm. There was a time when Kurzweil was a premier brand. Hope that Park can make it so, again.

Re your own pianos, I posted that the steel plates would be water cut, but was corrected by a tech! Ho, hum. Any release date?